Community Foundation Awards Grants, Seeks Board Members
Morgan Hill – The Morgan Hill Community Foundation has awarded seven grants totaling $5,325 to local charitable organizations and is accepting applications for its board of directors.
To date, the foundation has granted more than $24,000 to 28 local groups that share the foundation’s mission to enrich the lives of those in the community of the greater Morgan Hill area. The 2007 grant recipients include:
- Community Solutions: $1,000 to fund the emergency assistance gift card program for low-income individuals and families. Community Solutions is the largest human service agency in south Santa Clara County and last year served over 13,000 individuals.
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Friends of the Library: $1,000 to help fund the Beyond Books Campaign to furnish the new library. The new library opened its doors on July 21, 2007.
Learning & Loving Education Center: $1,000 to purchase pictorial dictionaries for the English Literacy Educational program. The center is a women-focused organization with on site childcare that provides educational services to over 250 immigrant women and children.
- Morgan Hill Aquatics Center: $900 to help purchase adult and youth lifejackets. The Center provides fitness programs, recreation swimming and educational/ safety classes to approximately 70,000 individuals during its 80 day season.
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Centennial Morgan Hill Committee: $800 to fund the transportation and installation of the “Waiting for the Train” public art project at the corner of Depot and Third Street. The committee formed in 2005 to help celebrate Morgan Hill’s 100th birthday and to promote our heritage through community events and projects.
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Media Access Coalition of Central California (MACCC): $325 to help purchase electronic equipment for the Master Control Upgrade Project.
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Morgan Hill Access Television (MHAT) operates Channel 19 on the Charter Cable System and provides a public service that benefits the community and supports other non-profit organizations.
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Morgan Hill Wind Symphony: $300 to help fund the cost of putting on 5 to 6 free public concerts for the 2007/08 season.
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Established in 2001 by local leaders to benefit a wide range of charitable purposes, the Foundation assists donors in making charitable gifts to the community, provides services for nonprofit organizations to create new or manage existing endowments, and distributes grants for programs or projects.
Details: http://www.morganhillcommunityfoundation.org,
www.morganhillcommunityfoundation.org or (408) 776-2232
Sheriff’s Office to Crack Down, Cite Businesses that Sell Alcohol to Minors
Santa Clara County – Businesses which sell alcohol might want to be particularly vigilant about checking identification now, because the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office will join in the Alcohol Beverage Control’s program, “Decoy Shoulder Tap,” designed to reduce youth access to alcohol.
The program, which began this month and will continue through June, uses decoys who try to purchase alcohol. Target businesses are chosen at random, but if the Sheriff’s Office receives a tip about a business that sells to minors, the business will be targeted. Deputies will also focus on business with previous violations.
If caught selling alcohol to minors, owners face criminal action as well as punitive action by Alcohol Beverage Control, which could include a fine and suspension or revocation of the business’ license.
Participation in the Decoy Shoulder Tap program is funded by an ABC grant that the Sheriff’s Office has received for the second year.
Anyone who would like to report a business that sells alcohol to minors can contact Det. Jaimez at (408) 808-4435.
Developer Looks to Annex 2,000 Acres
Gilroy – Politically savvy real estate wizard Gary Gillmor based out of Santa Clara wants to make Gilroy 20 percent bigger by annexing more than 2,000 of his cattle-friendly acres into the city. While his “Day Ranch” project tentatively calls for homes on 12 percent of the land, Gillmor said nothing’s final and that he’s concerned with the environment and especially with having his family’s land controlled locally by Gilroy, not by the distant seat of Santa Clara County.
Bringing his swath of land into the city, though, would bypass Planning Commission recommendations by catapulting development so far northwest that there would be a gap between the city and Gillmor’s island development, which poses significant costs and begs the question: Is this even possible?
City Planner Melissa Durkin is working on the nascent project northwest of Gilroy between the Gavilan and Coastal ranges, and she said Gillmor’s plan exhibits the 71-year-old’s ambition since the northern-most chunk extends beyond even the city’s “sphere of influence.” The SOI encompasses the city’s 20-year General Plan as a rough guide for the next 25, 50 or 100 years, Durkin said.
Gillmor wants to fast-forward time by amending the SOI, which would require the Planning Commission to expand it. The body’s never done this, though, because there’s already five years worth of land marked for residential development within the city, but most of it’s between Gillmor’s project and the city limits and hasn’t been annexed yet, Durkin said.
The City Council would have to approve the SOI expansion, followed by a thumbs-up from the Local Agency Formation Commission, a regional agency with veto power over annexation requests. This would just be the first step, Durkin said, as the city would then have to amend its 20-year General Plan and urban service boundaries to prepare for ultimate annexation, all the while leaving a gap between the city and Day Ranch, though the project’s south side does border the city’s western boundary.
“It’s going to be very difficult to finance this project,” Durkin said, referring to the more than $40,000 in fees Gillmor’s “Lucky Day Partnership” has already paid and the sundry studies and environmental reports to come. None of this includes the enormous water, sewer and road costs Gillmor will have to pay if a residential project materializes in what many see as no-man’s land.
But Gillmor says it’s too early to label his project as residential even though it calls for low-density housing on 248 of Gillmor’s 2,014 acres.
